This is the Investing News Network. I'm Georgia Williams and we're here in Toronto for the annual PDAC conference. Joining me today is Robert McDonald, VP for exploration at Equity Medals. Thanks for joining me today, Robert. >> Thank you very much, uh, Georgia. It's a pleasure to be here. >> It's very nice to meet you. Yeah, very nice to meet you too. >> Can we start with um the company's ticker symbol and what exchange you trade on? >> Uh yes, the company's ticker uh symbol


is EQTY. We trade on uh the TSXV and uh we're a junior exploration uh company based out of Vancouver and uh and we operate in in several jurisdictions throughout uh throughout Canada. >> Fabulous. And you know, we're here at PDAC, which is the premier mining event in Canada and the world. Um, it's only day two, but uh the buzz is palpable. How's the conference been for you? >> Oh, it's been very good. Uh I I think um everyone is uh as I say uh in very enthusiastic. Uh we we've seen a


significant upswing in metal prices and I think that's helped share prices of uh of many of the issuers. Uh it's also allowed uh uh people to raise significant capital which uh which makes everybody happy because you can finally get back to doing what you're supposed to do and uh and that is to uh create an increased shareholder value in your company. >> It's really nice to see the juniors excited because it's been a hard market. So it's nice that you guys are having


your moment to shine. So I'm happy. >> I am too. And and I'm sure the shareholders of Equity Metals are are happy as well. Um, Equity Metals is a diversified company that like you mentioned and you have four Canadian projects. Can you tell us about your assets and what regions they are located? >> Yes, of course. Um, so our flagship project is our Silver Queen project. It's located in central British Columbia, uh, accessible by road off of Highway 16. You can, it's a 40minute


drive off the highway to drive right into the camp and, uh, and and the project. very easy access and a very pleasant area to be uh to be working in. Um the other British Columbia project it's in southern British Columbia in the boundary district uh located again by road uh just 40 kilometers uh south of the city of Colona which is the I think it's the fourth largest city in uh in in British Columbia uh you know right now. Um and again very easy access. Highway 33 runs right through the project.


There's there's uh logging in the area. So, it gives you some excellent uh road access into uh into a number of the occurrences on the property uh that uh that that in that project we're looking more at a um gold, silver, copper uh targets uh whether it be veins as well as potential potential scarns on on that uh on that project. um with uh we have uh two diamond projects up in the lock area. Uh they're generally on on a bit of care and maintenance right now while we wait to see what's happening with


diamond uh diamond prices. And so we continue to maintain uh you know a camp on on one of those uh uh project areas and and continue to repermit and make sure that we'd be ready to go if and when there is a uh a turn in the diamond prices. And then we have a uh silica sand project uh that um uh is located in uh in central Saskatchewan. And this was originally picked up as uh you know for for for uh product for oil and gas drilling. And then we found that uh that it was a high purity silica that was


simple washing. Uh you could potentially upgrade it uh to be used in in the EV market for battery anoids. And uh and so that that's not really our business. So again, it's one that we're just sort of biting our time and and just seeing what opportunity uh uh presents itself. The main focus of the company right now is our silver queen silver gold uh zinc uh asset, a vein system, epiothermal vein system, and our Arlington system is a is sort of the the next one that we're bringing up the line.


>> And it can't be a better time to be a gold and silver explorer with prices at historical highs. What do these prices do to your project asset base or to your you know um the way that you're moving forward? >> I think it allows uh us and I would imagine many companies that are uh that are that are presenting here to uh uh to move forward at a at a more aggressive level. Uh you know at at this point our our share price has has probably doubled compared to uh doubled or tripled


compared to where it was even even in just September. uh which means that you can you can raise money uh more effectively with less dilution to the uh you know to the shareholder uh and allows you to uh again to take care of the treasury but still be fairly aggressive and aggress aggressive with your uh with your exploration plans as you continue to either in in the case of Silver Queen expand mineral resources and continue the de-risking pro uh process through uh continuing on permitting and baseline studies. Uh and


in the Arlington it's a it's a it's a new project green fields project and can allow us to get on the ground and identify new targets for new discovery green fields drilling. >> Exciting. Um and you mentioned the Arlington project uh which you announced earlier this year or in late 2025 that there was a drill program happening. Um can you give us some highlights from that? >> We we ended up drilling uh 3,000 mters on uh on just over 3,000 mters on on the Arlington program. uh that the focus was


a large um uh gold geocchemical anomaly in what we were calling the south fresh pots target area. Uh we drilled that and yes indeed we did hit uh a number of uh gold arcs pyite veins uh and some of those were quite high grade. They tended to be a little bit narrow at this point and they tended to be flatly lying and which may have explained the widespread uh the widespread soil anomaly. So yes, there is continued pro uh potential to uh to chase down some of those veins. We are seeing vectors that uh that that uh


would would appear to project uh across a uh placer gold plasterbearing stream into the north fresh pots area and that becomes one of the next targets that we want to uh that we want to drill this year. As well as there's several other uh green fields targets uh that uh that that we would like to uh drill test. We are the first people to drill on this property and there there are certain occurrences that have probably been known for over a hundred years uh where there has been uh artisal working uh on


the uh on the project but uh no drilling and as I said we're we're the first people to be drilling on uh first explorers to be drilling on on the project and we're going to continue that activity uh in the fall uh that the plan is now in the fall to be drilling again. >> Wow. Yeah. Um heading into Q2, what can investors expect uh from the company and what should they be on the lookout for? >> Well, um in uh early Q1 or mid Q1, we initiated drilling on our Silver Queen project. Uh and the focus there uh was


there was a about a kilometer strike length of uh of mineralization that sits within our resource uh that was largely drilled by historical drilling from the 1980s. And so in you know in in doing a uh a little risk analysis you know uh in in in terms of preparing the project for mergers and acquisitions activity uh you know we we we see that there is a gap and so it made sense for us to go in and do some due diligence drilling along that 1 kilometer strike length. Uh that will help ver uh vet and verify the


mineral resource estimates that we have on that um uh on on that segment of the number three vein. Uh it'll also allow us to to get more material for metallergical test work and again that's another another feature with the particularly with these poly metallic deposits uh that that is essential to derisking uh you know the the project as you're preparing for any sort of mining scenario or again uh mergers and acquisitions activity. Uh so we think that this is a worthwhile program. We're


able to launch that in the winter. Uh we're we're uh again the situation with Silver Queen it's it's it's easy access. We sit in the rain shadow of the coast range uh the of um coast range of the cordiiera uh which means that you get much less snow when precipitation than you will get for example in the golden triangle. Now I've worked in the golden triangle. It's not uncommon to get 10 or 15 meters of snow uh in a uh in in in uh in a season. And you know, if you're on


a north facing slope, you can sometimes not even get access into the property or into where you want to drill uh you know, until the July time frame. There's been that, you know, and so it really shortens your your field season here. Uh we're we're seeing, you know, maybe 1 meter of snow on the uh on the ground. You have easy road access uh into the property. We've mobilized drills that you're that are skid mounted. They're not helicopter supported. Uh so it makes it a very costefficient way even in the


winter to explore the uh the property and a significant advantage for getting money into the ground for the uh to to advance your projects. >> And I think that's a really interesting point because you don't often hear people talk about you know the difficulties of accessing a project in the winter and like you're saying some places are inaccessible till June or July which really reduces the season. So is that something that you're thinking about when you're looking into projects?


It >> it always is. I I mean we we wouldn't necessarily exclude something if it was helicopter supported or or again uh if if u you know uh a shortened field season or something along those lines, we wouldn't necessarily you know say outright no. uh but it becomes a feature that uh that that uh is a benefit and it becomes a big check uh you know when you're when you're doing your review and your again your risk assessment of uh of of projects that you would want to take on. So most definitely.


>> Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for sharing the story with us today. >> Excellent. Well, thank you very much Gina >> and I look forward to speaking with you again soon. >> Fantastic. And I do as well. Take care. >> Thank you. >> I'm Georgia Williams and that was Robert McDonald, VP of exploration at Equity Medals.